What I Read in 2024: Photography Books, Business, Learning, and More

Wherein I put words into my head…

Here’s my annual list of the books that accompanied my daily dose of reading from various internet sources.  These eighteen books include photography, business, learning, some flotsam, and a bit of jetsam. If you’re curious, you can also see my lists from 2023, 2022, 2021, or 2020.  The links below lead to pages where you can choose various online retailers if you want to purchase; I earn an affiliate commission on some purchases.

In the order I finished the books:

• After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul by Tripp Mickle.  A look at post-Jobs Apple, focused on Jony Ive, Tim Cook, and the relationship between them. The author’s stance is well-stated in the book’s subtitle. This was interesting as an Apple fan, but I wonder if it fell too hard into well-heard Ive and Cook stereotypes. Ive only cared about design, cost be damned. Cook only cares about money and can’t appreciate design. I suspect the situation isn’t quite as black-and-white as portrayed.
• The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t by Julia Galef.  An interesting read. As I worked through it, there were plenty of times when I didn’t feel like I was learning much new, but as I reviewed my highlights and notes afterward, I realized how much of the material connected with previous reading and notes around decisions, confidence, and attitude. I made some great connections between previous thoughts.
• Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks.  As a speaker, I know that the ability to tell stories will help keep folks engaged with the information I’m sharing. As an introvert who is constantly working on making myself less awkward in social situations, stories can help. I enjoyed the author’s use (unsurprisingly) of various stories from his own life to illustrate the points he makes about storytelling. Highly recommended.
• Scenes from My Life: A Memoir by Michael K. Williams.  You probably know him as Omar Little from The Wire, but Williams has a deeper repertoire of acting and dancing work. I enjoyed his autobiography where he opens up about his life as an addict and his attempts to elevate others and use his success to help those less fortunate. It’s an easy read with some smart insights.
• Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld.  I (mistakenly) thought this would be a book diving into the creative process. I was wrong. There’s a little bit of that, but it’s mostly Seinfeld sharing a variety of comedic bits from throughout his career.
• Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet by Taylor Lorenz.  As someone who is, well, extremely online, I figured I should read this. This is a good look at the growth of the the social web and creator economy from the time of blog comments through TikTok. The book filled in some gaps in my awareness, even though I lived through (and was active in) this part of the online evolution. It was good to learn more of the backstory of Musical.ly (which became TikTok). A fast read that can bring awareness to the monetary side of online media.
• Are Your Lights On? by Donald Gause and Gerald Weinberg.  I knew of Weinberg from my days as a professional software tester, and this older book was recently mentioned by someone in my current circle of colleagues. This is a short book and a fast read, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. The authors do an excellent job of getting to the point, and reiterating those points through practical examples. If you care about problem-solving, I highly recommend that this book be in your library.
• All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks. Who doesn’t love the work of Mel Brooks? As a Xennial, I grew up with Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. His work was always a mix of pure slapstick with an air of intelligence to it. This autobiography reads in the same way and I enjoyed the introduction to some of his earlier life. If you enjoy Mel Brooks’ work, you’ll likely enjoy his writing.
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. This is a re-read; I’ve read this book two or three times previously. It was time to do it again. My adventures over the last year in moving both of my parents into a memory care facility (or more specifically, the adventure of cleaning out their house) definitely reinforced the physical object aspects of essentialism. It was time to refresh my mind with the mental aspects of it.
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss. A fast read with a very high signal-to noise ratio. Voss served as the FBI’s chief international hostage negotiator for several years, and shares how lessons from high-stakes hostage negotiations can be put to work in more everyday situations. I enjoyed his discussion of “tactical empathy” as well as very specific techniques and phrases that can be applied in situations ranging from price negotiations to job promotions.
• There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World by Carlo Rovelli. I knew nothing of this book going into it; it was received as a gift from a family member. It’s a collection of essays by the author on subjects ranging from politics to religion to the environment and more. Some of the essays were quite compelling for me while others were less so. I’m glad I read it as there were a few nuggets I saved into my knowledge bank.
• How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) by Jessica McCabe. I’ve been a fan of Jessica’s YouTube channel for a few years, and this book brought together everything she’s talked about into a well-organized set of material. There’s a healthy dose of science coupled with practical tips for daily life. Highly recommended if you (or someone you’re close to) lives with ADHD.
• Great Mental Models, Volume 3: Systems and Mathematics by Rhiannon Beaubien and Rosie Leizrowice. As someone who has spent the last few years nerding out on metacognition, this third-in-a-series book on mental models was eagerly anticipated. I found it interesting, but it had a quirk that repeated itself several times throughout the book. Stories and examples are a great way to illustrate the models, but at multiple points I realized that the authors had gone way down a very specific story that, from where I sat, was only tangentially related to the model at hand. The signal-to-noise ratio wasn’t as high as I’d hoped.
• Zen Camera by David Ulrich. Having read Ulrich’s later book The Mindful Photographer (here’s my YouTube interview with Ulrich), I bought this to go back and learn about his previous take on this related subject. Zen Camera was an excellent read that I’d recommend to any photographer who wants to create more meaningful photographs instead of casual snapshots. Broad themes include reflection on how your photography reflects the world around you, how it reflects yourself, and bringing intentionality to your long-term photography ventures.
• Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill. Clearview AI is a company described as creepy, problematic, fascinating, and illegal, depending upon who you ask. Their facial recognition system, used primarily by law enforcement, was developed by scraping the public internet. This book was a fast read and unfortunately confirmed my previous take that Clearview is a company of bad ideas, reckless management, and little regard for the impact of their product.
• Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown. I mentioned re-reading McKeown’s Essentialism above, and this followup book was a new read. Unfortunately I didn’t find it quite as compelling or in-depth as his previous work. The two definitely relate, but Effortless seemed like less significant follow-on implementation thoughts whereas Essentialism felt like fresh ideas to me.
• The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane. I’ve always been stronger with my technical skills than my people skills, and I found this book offered some practical insight into working on the latter. The author walks through the importance of charisma, four types of charisma, and specific actions we can take to improve our abilities. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to work better with others and avoid ending up like Tom Smykowski in Office Space.
• Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good by Kevin Smith. As a longtime Smith fan, I enjoyed this book where he shared his mostly-comedic take on his life experiences as a filmmaker. Interspersed throughout, Smith shares his take on the lessons he’s learned and various pieces of information that he thinks might be helpful to the reader. It’s not a self-help book but there were definitely some bits of wisdom throughout this entertaining read.

What did you read last year? What did you think of it? Leave a comment below.